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Bassmaster Classic to decide championship

By Vic Allshouse

E-E Outdoors Columnist

When the “Big Dance” starts Friday — and runs through Sunday — on the Red River, it will be anyone’s guess as to who will take home the brass ring. The Bassmasters Classic is not a little affair by no means and only those elite of the elite will take part.

Many wonder if Kevin VanDam or “KVD” as he is known, will make it a “three-pete” and take the crown again, or will it be a little-known rookie who wows the huge crowd with an unexpected victory.

The Classic will once again be held on the Red River just outside of Shreveport and the pros are very familiar with the twists and turns this fishery’s waters can provide come tournament time. The pros will be competing against each other as well as Mother Nature and the weather. And this time of the year a cold front can really make a difference.

Most of the pros have competed here before, albeit during Bassmaster Elite Series events. The Classic has only been held here one other time, in 2009 – the eventual winner being California angler Skeet Reese. But the “main man” (KVD) has not done well, by his standards, in the past, coming in 30th to Reese in that win.

Reese, who’s absence this year from the competition is quite notable, believes the event’s outcome will depend on two major points – weather and water clarity. The Red River winds almost 1400 miles though the Louisiana countryside and any appreciable amount of rainfall can muddy it’s waters. The top-rated Reese says if the waters muddy, the weights will be down. Only anglers that are able to adjust to the changing conditions – and do it quickly – will succeed.

Offering the shallow-water angler an edge, these shallow (often less than 3 feet) waters could be a flipper and pitcher’s dream. Stumps, laydown logs and weed beds combine to allow the bass to hide in many places. But if a cold front comes through before or during the competition, many anglers may be lost. Finding fish that have moved from their shallow water haunts to another location can take time to find, something the pros haven’t the time to do. KVD credits his loss in 2009 to a poor decision on Day 1 of that Classic. And though he weighed a healthy limit on Day 2, he was never able to overcome the deficit.

You CANNOT have a bad day during the three days of the Classic competition, he says. You must perform to the best of your ability EVERY day and hope that you make the right choices at the right times.

The pros, as usual, will be looking for a limit each day and within that limit would love to have a “kicker” fish – a fish of more than 6 or 7 pounds. However, this fishery is not noted for sustaining that size fish with the largest of 7 ½ pounds being surpassed only by a fish that was considered an “accident”.

During the Central Open in 2010, co-angler Thomas Tisdale was throwing a hollow-bodied frog behind his pro partner when the lunker of the Red blew up on his bait. The fish weighed in at 11 ½ pounds and was more of an exception than a rule. The only others approaching the 7 pound mark were three checked in during the 2009 Classic and caught by Davey Hite on Day 2 weighing 7-6, Day 1 saw Aaron Martens with a 7-1 and Day Three by Greg Hackney with another bass weighing 7-1.

If the weather holds up winning weights may hover around the 60-pound mark for three days, but if it goes in the toilet, 35 pounds may be stretching it.

So, if I were a betting man who would I pick to win? Well, last year I picked the winner. But my choice was made because of interviews with KVD and his responses to the questions he was asked. This year, who knows? But I will go out on a limb and say Denny Brauer, Edwin Evers, Greg Hackney and of course KVD, ALL have a better-than-even chance of taking home the Classic trophy and the million dollars a win is purportedly worth. But then there’s the rookie, Brandon Palaniuk…….